How I Made My Business Name Outstanding

This week, we pass over the writing reigns to Geoff Thomas, a previously satisfied customer who continues to use our services for new business name registrations. Geoff is a successful business owner with a remarkable capacity for finding the perfect identity within highly competitive niche marketplaces. Over to you, Geoff!

Why I Care about my Business Name

When I first started out many years ago, I had little or no idea of how important my business name would be. My first business was a home-based enterprise and I started out with what I had in my garage. A vacuum cleaner, some brushes, a handful of cleaning products and a heap of willpower was all I needed to begin my own office cleaning business.

I chose the business name “Geoff Thomas Commercials”. I wanted to market myself to local offices and businesses on an out-of-hours basis so that I could keep my day job going until my own business began to make money. I advertised the hell out it. My business name was in local newspapers, shop windows, trade and business magazines, and on the side of my van. I tried to put it out everywhere.

…and nothing happened.

I came home from my day job every night and went straight to my answerphone messages. It was the same story each evening and I’d go to bed bitterly disappointed. Here I was, prepared to work all the hours God sent, and nobody would cut me a break. One weekend, I met up with an old friend who was back in the area to visit his mother. We met for a drink and I told him my problems.

He laughed, put an arm around my shoulder, and said “Geoff – you are destined to go nowhere unless you change your business name and change it TODAY!”

Choosing my New Business Name

For the next week, I spent every evening trying to come up with a new business name. I researched other companies offering the same services and I listened to all the advice I could on finding the perfect identity to push my own operation. I learned that I had to be unique, interesting, and memorable enough to stick in the minds of my prospective clients.

I wrote down all of the words that related to cleaning. From “Spotless” to “Sanitised”, they were all on the list. I wrote down all the benefits I could offer, such as a fast, efficient service and ultra-competitive pricing. I considered everything I possibly could from my location to the people I was targeting. With my list complete, I went about choosing my new business name with the help of my family and friends.

Body Scrub Business Names Ideas

Within a few days, “Office Sparkles” was born, and although I wasn’t entirely convinced. I ran a fresh set of advertisements with my new business name and waited. For the first few days after going to press, the answerphone still stared back at me blankly every evening. It wasn’t until the Friday evening that I came home to find a flashing red light saying I’d received a new message,

I listened to it instantly and I was over the moon. An accountant in the same town I live in had just moved into new premises in the area and the previous occupant had left a trail of debris behind. Would I be prepared to pop over and give him a quote for cleaning it? You had better believe it! I was there within minutes.

I had a look around, offered a price and said I could start right away as my van was outside. The accountant looked out of the window and, with a resigned look on his face, apologised and said he’d made a mistake. He’d called the wrong company. I was distraught, until I noticed something else myself. My van still had “Geoff Thomas Commercials” as the Body Scrub Business Names Ideas

printed on it!

“I was looking for Office Sparkles. Do you know them?” said the accountant.

“Do I know them?” I laughed. “I AM THEM!”

I pulled out a business card and explained that I’d changed my business name but hadn’t remembered to change the stickers on the van. The accountant said that he’d seen the new advertisement in the paper and for some reason, it just stuck in his mind. He wanted his new offices sparkling and “Office Sparkles” seemed the perfect choice.

I was given the job on the spot and I started there and then. The first thing I did with the money I earned was to change the lettering on the van to my new business name and very soon, my phone was ringing off the hook. My wife had to come out with me most evenings to help and within two months, I left my day job AND hired some part-time help.

That business name served me well for 15 years and I’ll never be able to thank my friend enough for pointing out that my old business name wasn’t working. Although “Office Sparkles” is now no more, I’m still a hugely successful businessman with my fingers in many different pies. When I start out on a new venture now, one of my biggest considerations is always the business name.

Get them right, and they’ll serve you well for a lifetime.